The Storm Calms, Still
by extraoctaven
Summary: It's raining.
It's raining. It comes down steadily against the grey metal in Arkadia, about all that can be heard unlike the usual sounds of life that accompanied the full civilization. Instead, people favored staying in bed to working in the rain. Understandably, many of them worked outside. But Raven enjoys it. It's a welcomed background noise while she tinkers with an old CD player in the remnants of mecca station. It's a good day for her leg, thunder claps softly outside, she's being useful and getting work done. Raven feels productive today.

Despite its durability- especially after the crash landing on earth- the ark wasn't built to withstand rain. Raven went around the room earlier placing buckets and cups to collect the water that seeped through due to the storm. The wind howls and brings cold gusts of air into her workspace so Raven works with a blanket draped over her shoulders. The noise from the storm well at masking things. It's enough to where she doesn't hear the footsteps that draw closer until something was right in front of her, a glimpse of a body shaking her from her concentration with a slight jump.

She looks up. Dark braids and green eyes. "Jesus, O. You scared me," Raven laughs, setting down her CD player and rising to her feet. It's takes Raven a second to realize that Octavia's eyes are unceremoniously wide and that she's shaking. Raven's face contorts in concern. "You okay?"

Octavia shakes her head. "The storm," she mumbles.

Raven pieces it together well enough. "Not a fan of thunderstorms?"

Octavia keeps shifting nervously. "No. I'm not." It's weird seeing Octavia like this. The usual headstrong warrior reduced to shaking and nerves because the sky rained down on them. "Reminds me of when Lincoln…"

She trails off and looks up at Raven desperately. Raven nods, understanding why she didn't want to relive the storm that brought torture to Lincoln again. "I'm working on this thing," Raven hums, dropping back down to her workbench and opening the blanket draped across her body so Octavia can join her. "Hopefully by the time I get it working it plays music. Wanna watch?"

Octavia nods and takes shaky steps, rounding the table and plopping down next to her. Raven can practically feel Octavia's nerves, it makes her a little anxious, too.

"See this piece?" Raven asks gently, prompting a distraction. Octavia shimmies closer to her side, her face wavering between warrior, anxious child, and curious teenage girl. "If I'm right it's the nob that switches between songs. Kinda like Jasper's iPod."

Raven fiddles with it, snapping it into place before she points to something else. "And see this?" Octavia nods. "This is the CD that's supposed to play music. Hits from 2010-2020." She pauses, looking up from her work to steal a glance at Octavia. "You sing, O?"

"Rain, rain, go away," she deadpans. "No, Raven, I don't sing."

Raven laughs lightly, flipping the CD player upside down to unscrew the battery hatch at the bottom. "There's the girl I know."

Octavia ignores her. "What are you doing now?"

"Oh. I'm trying to see if this thing has batteries in it." The hatch falls away when the forth screw does. Raven frowns. Four slots for batteries, only two there. "Dammit."

"Can you fix it?"

"Of course I can. I'm awesome." Raven grins cockily, slipping out from under the blanket and off of the bench to go get two more she'd seen laying around in a bin earlier. "Watch that for me, babe?"

Raven freezes. Octavia hums. "Babe?"

"I just-" Raven fumbles with her words, cheeks heating up as embarrassment creeps through her. "We- you sleep in my bed sometimes," she says softly. "I didn't mean to-"

"Slow down," Octavia laughs. "It's alright. I… I like it."

Raven lets out the breath she'd been holding in. "Yeah?"

"Yeah."

By now the storm had calmed down some and by the looks of her, so had Octavia. Raven rummages around for two batteries, occasionally looking back to find Octavia flicking at a screw, watching it spin to life and die down again. Raven can't help the smile that finds its way onto her lips. The two of them were new in their relationship and neither of them had really talked about it but maybe that's the way things needed to be, easy.

Eventually Raven finds two batteries and returns to the work bench, slipping back underneath the blanket, welcoming the warmth from Octavia with a light sigh. She pops the batteries into the CD player and screws the cover back on.

She delves back into her work, explaining things to Octavia as she goes. At one point, Octavia's arms come around to wrap around her waist, stilling Raven's movements for a moment as she forces out a shuddering breath.

"O, you're cold," Raven breaths, shivering at the cool fingers that press against her.

"I know," she responds. "That's why I'm doing this."

Eventually Raven gets used to it. Initially, her heart hammers in her chest to the point where she thinks that Octavia might feel it against her. Her drops against Raven's shoulder and her heart flares again, something foreign bubbling in her stomach. But eventfully Octavia's fingers warm and Raven's heart calms down and it takes less concentration to focus on her work. And just like the two of them, the storm calms, still.

That's how Bellamy finds them hours later. Light music plays from a little machine on table that his sister and Raven are slumped against. Yet somehow they're both curled against each other at the same time. Raven has an arm thrown across Octavia's body, holding her close. Octavia clings loosely to her waist, her head nestled against Raven's neck. A blanket hangs half on their bodies, half dipping on the ground. Bellamy smiles at them, deciding against waking them up like Kane had asked.

Light thunder claps far off in the distance and Octavia sleeps, regardless. The music continues playing. Neither of them stir.


End file.
